The Patriot's Daughter
by MidnightSchemer13
Summary: Happy Veteran's Day! Two-shot. It's 11/11/11, but Roxas and Axel don't have a clue as to why it's so important. Can Naminé teach them? What secret story is she hiding, and why is her father gone?


**A/N: Even if it's just a moment of silence, let's respect our war heroes on this day of remembrance and honour: Veteran's Day. **

**And until the end of this story, we'll set the setting in present-time; I hope I do my idea justice, and that nobody takes any offense whatsoever. If you do, I deeply and sincerely apologize.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own.**

**Warning: Teeny tiny bit AU-ish. I have barely any information concerning the wars right now (which is ironic, since I live on a base), so the War will be from KH. The story will be in two parts, because a) I'm tired and can't write more, and b) it's late, and the screen's ruining my eyesight. Love you all!**

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><p>"Hey, Zexion, do you know-" began asking Roxas as he entered the classroom, but faltered when he saw the slate-haired student hold a single finger up to his lips. Tilting his head in question, he followed Zexion's glance, and saw their teacher, Professor Highwind, deep in discussion with Professor Ansem.<p>

Taking a seat next to the only other person in the lecture hall (as it was, after all, ten minutes before the bell, at precisely 7:50), Roxas lowered his voice to a whisper as he asked Zexion yet another question.

"What're they talking about?"

The scientist's son looked at him with a mildly surprised expression.

"You haven't heard?" Roxas shook his head no. "Today is November 11, 2011. If you abbreviate the date, it becomes 11/11/11. As well as being Marluxia's birthday, today is-"

"The day Skyrim comes out?" The two of them whirled around in shock to see a grinning redhead looking down upon them from the seat behind them. He waved a plastic video game case at them. "Dude. I've already gotten my copy! I'm so excited; I can't wait to go home and play it!" Roxas grinned back.

"I would've thought that you'd skip class again, just to play." The redhead shook his head, feigning sadness.

"Nah. Genesis found out and said that if I skipped today, he'd sell my music _and _my video games. So. No can do. _But_," he added, reaching into his black bag, "I bought a copy for _you_, little buddy. You owe me ten dollars." Roxas stared at him in shock.

"It only cost you _ten dollars?_" The redhead winked at him.

"Yepp. You can thank _Reno _for that later."

"Axel, when you and Roxas are _quite _finished with your conversation..." began Zexion irately, who had begun reading a book during the two's conversation. Roxas sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry, Zex. What is today, then? Besides Marluxia's birthday...?" Zexion rolled his eyes and gave Roxas a flat look.

"You really do not know?" Both Roxas and Axel shook their heads. The student sighed. "Today is Veteran's Day."

"OH _YEAHHH_, that's right!" exclaimed Axel, a little loudly. "Demyx mentioned something about that!" Zexion hit his shoulder with his book, annoyed at the sudden increase in volume.

"_Yes_, I'm sure he did. You really ought to have more respect for the military, you know, and all of the veterans, _including Professors Cid and Ansem. _Honestly." Axel rubbed his shoulder a tad ruefully, but cocked his head curiously.

"Cid's a veteran?" Zexion nodded, leaning over his desk and beginning to scrawl, somehow neatly, notes into his notebook.

"Yes. He fought in the Battle of 1000 Heartless, along with Cloud Strife, Squall Leonhart, Tifa Lockhart, Monk Auron, Setzer Gabbiani, and Zack Fair. It was a terrible three-day battle. Our side won, of course, with very few casualties; but even then, each loss was a terrible blow, because they had lost a both a valiant hero and a dear friend. Most of the survivors stayed behind to help the refugees..." Zexion paused, pressing his lips into a thin line. "If you want a story, you should go ask Naminé, Kairi, or Xion. Class is about to start, and, along with a Patriot's Speech, we also have a test today."

Roxas and Axel whirled around, and sure enough, the classroom was filling up, with only a few seats here and there left open.

"What? Where did the time go?"

"We have a _test?_"

The two boys looked at each other, and simultaneously banged their heads down onto the desks.

"We're _doomed..._"

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><p>Naminé hummed an ancient song softly to herself, a small blonde girl with a pale, pale complexion, of an age barely younger than Roxas, as she painted yet another scene of the ocean. Her white smock was splattered with paint, and from her fingertips to her elbows were multicolour dyes staining her skin. A few loose strands of hair escaped her red bandana, but she didn't seem to mind as she continued applying colour to canvas.<p>

It took her an extra hour or so to finish the beautiful, sunrise scene, with the sun's rays pouring over the ocean waves, and she was just starting to clean herself up when her doorbell rang.

Thinking it was Sora with another letter, the girl quickly dashed out of the attic, down two flights of stairs, through the kitchen and across the garage to the side door.

Opening it breathlessly, she froze for a moment as her eyes registered who her visitors were, as they _clearly _weren't Sora. One wore a business suit-like school uniform quite untidily, with the shirt untucked and the tie loose, and the other wore it moderately neatly. She glanced up at their faces, recognizing the vibrant red hair and purple tattoos on the untidy one, and the golden fair hair of the neat one. Her face split into a wide smile.

"_Axel! Roxas!_" she cried, jumping to hug them. The two boys hugged her back just as tightly, and followed her into the house as she tugged their hands. She sat them down on the couches in the living room, and served them each a mug of instant peppermint hot chocolate. "I haven't seen you two for _ages!_ How have you been? What's been happening in the 'Outside World'?"

Roxas and Axel grinned sheepishly, and sipped their beverages, grinning.

"Sorry we haven't visited for a while, Nami," spoke up Axel. "We didn't mean to-"

But Naminé laughed softly, shaking her head.

"You don't need to apologize; I keep telling you that! But give me _news_; has anything happened lately?" Roxas blew on his hot chocolate as he thought.

"Erm... well, we had History test today..."

"We probably _flunked_."

"Bet Zexion got a 100."

"Zexion _always _gets a 100."

"So then pay up!"

"What? That's rigged!"

"Yeah, like Riku's wheel game. You won't believe this, Nami, but he rigged this wheel so that it would always land _just before _Jackpot so you'd keep paying and paying and playing and playing; that clever son of a duck got _fifty dollars _until we caught him!"

The young artist laughed at the friends' banter, and their sudden switch to his and her conversation, but felt her curiosity spike at the tantalizing bit of news.

"Riku _rigged _a game? Did those fifty dollars come from you two?"

"_No!_" The two denied simultaneously, eliciting a smile from the blonde.

"Alright then," she challenged, pulling her legs up so that she sat crosslegged on the couch, "how much _did _you spend?"

"Um..."

"Er..."

"Well, less than fifty..."

Naminé raised an eyebrow at Axel's lame answer. He rolled his eyes and took another drink of his PHC.

"Alright, alright, we spent fifteen dollars each. So only thirty. Alright?"

Naminé smiled softly, and nodded, allowing the two to change the subject. They spoke about sports, and they spoke about Skyrim, but the more they talked, the quieter Naminé became, and soon she was lost in her thoughts again, and itching to paint yet another picture, and found her mind wandering to when Sora would come to deliver her long-awaited letter, when-

"Naminé?" Her head jerked back up, as though on a puppet-string.

"Yes?"

Sora stood at her strangely, smiled, and then handed her a crisp, clean envelope.

"The newest letter. I got here as fast as I could." Taking it gingerly, Naminé stared at it for a moment before rushing at Sora in a hug, smiling through wet eyes filled with tears that threatened to fall.

"Thank you," she whispered softly. The brunet nodded, and hugged her back just as tightly.

"You're welcome. Good luck," he whispered in return. She nodded.

"Will do."

_**End Part One**_


End file.
